Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Another cupcake comes to town for hopefully a thorough butt-whipping. They haven't showed up on the road in their previous games so I'm expecting this to continue.Season stats

Tim Williams and Martino Brock pull double digit PPG while Augustine Rubit cleans the boards at 7.4 RPG. The roster has exactly one guy over 6'6" and that guy plays (Gowins)sparingly. They pretty much suck in every aspect of the game right now.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

The Tide rised back to .500 with a 76-50 win over Alabama A&M. Charles Hankerson got the first start of his young career in place of the suspended Green. Hankerson made the most of his opportunity, playing very good defense, making a 3 pointer, protecting the basketball, and scoring 8 points. Tony Mitchell really stepped up his game down low, pulling down 15 reboundings and adding 12 points. We had 4 players score in double digits, with Chris Hines giving us a solid 10 in the post and Charvez Davis adding 11 from the perimeter. Ben Eblen even scored 6, going 3 for 4 on layups.

It was obvious from the start of the game that the Bulldogs would not be able to hang. We went on an early run to build the lead and never looked back. We did get a little sloppy about midway through the first half when AAMU finally realized they couldn't play a full court game with us and switched to a 2-3 zone. We were much more crisp in the halfcourt offense later in the half and in the 2nd half. The intensity and energy was much better than it has been the last 2 games, with the guys on the bench seeming much more into the game and vocal.

Jason Carter suffered an injury in the 2nd half, which was unfortunate because he was playing a very good game. He appeared to be in a lot of pain and the trainers spent a fair amount of time checking out his right knee. He did not return, but appeared to be walking much better by the end of the game. With JaMychal's suspension we are already very thin in the post. Hopefully Carter will be okay.

I criticize the officials a fair amount on here and at the games, but they have a difficult and thankless job and for the most part they do the best they can. Rick Hartzell, one of the officials, was injured in the 2nd half when an Alabama A&M player dived to save a ball and knocked him into the scorer's table. He appeared to hit his side on the padded edge of the table, but with the weight of the rather large bulldog upon him. It took him several minutes to catch his breath before going back to the locker room to be looked at. He returned several minutes later, but after running up and down the court twice, realized he could not make it and walked back off. I sincerely hope his injury is not too serious and he makes a speedy recover. He was in the right position at the time, it was just one of those fluke plays and he had nowhere to go.

Without knowing the full story, I will not offer an opinion on Green's suspension. At this point, I trust Coach Grant and hope it's the best decision for all involved. I hope it is something minor and he is able to return soon.

The crowd at the game was pathetic, maybe 3,000 or so in attendance. AAMU brought a fair amount of fans, including one who apparently thought he was on the coaching staff. Sporting a maroon coat and tie, he literally stood on the front step behind AAMU's basket for the first 10 minutes of the game shouting instructions to his team loudly enough for the entire gym to hear. UAPD officers finally sent him to his seat, where he was shown several times on the jumbotron throughout the rest of the game looking rather displeased.

Up next, the South Alabama Jaguars come to Tuscaloosa for an approximate 7:30 pm tipoff Wednesday night at Coleman. I say approximate, because the game will actually start 30 minutes following the conclusion of the women's game against Alabama State, which will tip off at 5 p.m. So if you have time, get there a little early and support the women too, who are having a very good season with only one close loss to a top 15 team.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Green has been indefinitely suspended for "conduct detrimental to the team". According to a team spokesperson, the suspension is due to a "basketball matter".

This doesn't surprise me much since I figured a shake-up was in order after the trip to the Virgin Islands. JaMychal has incredible potential as a player but inconsistency has dogged him from the beginning of his career in Tuscaloosa. With this being his second suspension in less than a year, could it mean the end of his career in Tuscaloosa?

They're 2-1 with a loss at Western Kentucky. They have 4 guys averaging double digit scoring, Cantey and Hunter are the rebounders, and Hester and Jackson are the perimeter shooters. That all sounds nice, but IMO we shouldn't have to worry much about any of them.

Stats:
- 40.5% FG
- 31.9% 3PT FG
- 63.2% FT
- +1.3 rebound margin

Prediction: after a miserable Paradise Jam I suspect A&M is the sacrificial lamb... I hope. Bama by 23.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Thanks to Delta I spent an extra night in St Thomas. I guess there are worse places to be stuck. Anyways...

DJC covered the tournament and the general suckage of our team below. I'm going to add some random thoughts.

- On the plane ride home I spoke to an Iowa media guy and asked him what did the coaches prepare the Hawkeyes for against us. His answer was to take away the inside and let them shoot. They were a bit nervous about that on the heels of the Seton Hall game, but obviously it worked out well. They primarily played a hybrid 2-3 zone, double-teaming Green and only worried about Davis from the outside. It was explained to me it was more of a 1-2-2 look with more collapsing inside. We played their game...

- I suspect EVERY team we play will implement this the best they can. We'll have a game or two like Seton Hall, but if we don't improve we're not much better than the Barn.

- Iowa isn't supposed to be very good. They lost to the LBC (Long Beach) on Monday... and thanks to Delta they (and Clemson) were stuck like me in St Thomas Tuesday.

- St Peter's celebrated their win over us like they made the Final Four. I give them all the credit in the world... their kids never quit. IMO ours were going through the motions since Saturday morning.

- I'm not as full of BAMA as DJC is. I skipped the Iowa game and instead drank on the beach. I did go to the St Peter's shocker with 155 of my closest friends.

- At first, I thought Grant canceling the team's snorkeling trip was a good thing due to their play vs Iowa. I'm not so sure I believe that anymore. I saw a team sleepwalking vs St Peter's (which Grant said himself during a TO), a team playing as individuals, very little chatter between them on the court or on the bench, and when I heard Grant said something about practice when they get back I saw their heads collectively sulk. I'm not sure the approach he's taking with them is effective. Hell... I'll say it... I think he's being too much of a hardass... at least from what I saw in St Thomas.

- The kids aren't having fun out there. Looks to me like the last thing any of them want to do is play basketball. That's a HUGE problem as it won't be corrected at the snap of a finger or more practice time.

- DJC and I talked about Grant's questionable use and non-use of timeouts. We both noticed this last year too. To be honest that bothers me.

For hanging with me through this long post, here are some pics I took at the tourney. They're iPhone quality, but you can see how close we are to the action.

- I'm really concerned about this team. Losing to the 5th, 6th, and 7th place teams is something no one expected. Obviously the season is very young, but IMO we got more than shooting issues.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

The bad news, we finished dead last in a tournament of 8 teams that did not even feature a single top 25 team. I'm trying to find some good news, but frankly from an Alabama basketball perspective that is a difficult task right now. The best I can come up with is that I'm on a tropical island typing the post while overlooking the beach, and you are not; but that probably doesn't make you feel any better.

We had no business losing to Iowa. St. Peter's returned 4 starters from one of the best defensive teams in the country last year, but still, they lost by 25 to Robert Morris. We had no business losing to them too.

I've been reluctant to post because I'm honestly at a loss for words right now. We played hard and competed against Seton Hall. I really felt bad for the guys after that game, as you could see the anguish and disgust on every player's face after that game. We didn't show up for the Iowa game. Coach Grant was more animated and vocal than I have ever seen him during the St. Peter's game. Nevertheless, it was the same situation as the Iowa game, we settled for too many jump shots, played a slower place game that favors St. Peters, and ended up getting beat.

I do not know the answer. Coach Grant's style of play requires a deep bench. We need 10-11 guys who can contribute. Right now, we have 4 players getting significant playing time who at this point in their career should not be seeing the court in a D1 game. The 7 players who are legitimate contributers are better suited to playing the type of game we are trying to run. I don't know what we should do, if you slow it down you go away from the strength of the players in the game, but what we are doing obviously leaves us with huge liabilities. For now, trust Coach Grant and hope that he gets the horses he needs soon.

Other than the horrible basketball, it's been a great trip. The U.S. Virgin Islands are beautiful. We took a ferry to St. John's a couple of days and had a great time. There are some beautiful beaches on St. Thomas, and a fun bar scene at Red Hook. We met Bryan Passink and his wife, and they are great people who love UA even more than we do, which I didn't think was possible. The arena here is small, much like Maui's, and would pass for an average at best high school arena back home. That being said, you can get much closer to the action with a general admission ticket than anywhere back home. Furthermore, the concession stand people were the most quickly efficient, friendly, and reasonably priced of anywhere I have been. Outside of people connected to the program, we did not have much of a following at all. Iowa brought a fair number of folks, as did Seton Hall. Outside of St. Peter's, we probably had the smallest crowd here. I was surprised at how many people Long Beach State brought, and Clemson also had a few. Iowa and Clemson were both on our flight back home, which got cancelled.

On the downside, it's much more humid here than it was in Maui, and parts of the island are somewhat run down. Not surprisingly at all, Delta screwed us and the the flight home got cancelled because they apparently weren't competent enough to adequately maintain the plane. Nevertheless, there are worse places to be stuck an extra night than St. Thomas. Up next, Alabama A&M saturday night at Coleman. Hopefully it being Iron Bowl weekend will draw a decent crowd. Below are a couple of pics, showing a view from the beach on our condo and at the game.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Our apologies for the lack of updates. Internet access has been limited. In a nutshell, we just haven't played very well. In the Seton Hall game, we had too many turnovers at key moments in the game. It was a strange game in that we shot 71% from 3 point range, but Seton Hall shot about 75%. Our free throw shooting was horrible as usual. The officials were calling the game extremely tight, and we were slow to make the required adjustments. Still, we played hard and came back and cut the lead to 3, and had the ball with a 3 point deficit with around 15 seconds to play. I like a lot of things Coach Grant is doing, but at times I think he went to the Les Miles school of clock management. We turned the ball over and never got a shot at tying the game. We should have called a timeout to draw up a play for a 3 point shot. Nevertheless, that is not why we lost the game, the aforementioned turnovers and missed free throws did us in.

The Iowa game was an unmitigated abortion of epic proportions. Cully Payne and 4 other unathletic crackers took it to us. After shooting over 70% from 3 point range against Seton Hall we apparently thought we could keep that up. The difference is we went inside out against Seton Hall, but in the Iowa game we seemed content to pass the ball around the perimeter and jack up 3's. We seemed to get overconfident with an early lead and blew it in a slow paced, half court game.

From what I understand, Coach Grant kept the team in the locker room for an extended period of time after the Iowa game, and cancelled all of the fun/touristy activities scheduled in favor of more practice time. It's disappointing and frustrating, but this is a young team that is playing hard early in the season. Don't give up on them yet.

Up next, we take on the St. Peter's Peacocks to avoid last place in the tournament. Tip off is 2 pm Atlantic, noon Central.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

- turnovers killed us. The team seems to have a problem helping out on a double team.- shot lights out from 3. Too bad Seton Hall did the same.- Green has got to stop the tic tac fouls.- regarding fouls, I thought the refs called the game tough on us, light on Seton Hall. My proof is FT shooting difference.- when Theodore got his 4th foul we did a poor job trying to get his 5th. I can't remember us making him play the ball.

Sorry for the bullet post.... Posting from iPhone. Hopefully we get the innernets fixed at the condo.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Here is the bracket. We have a tough draw, as we play arguably the best team in the first round. The Seton Hall Pirates are 1-1, losing by 6 on the road to a good Temple game and easily defeating Cornell at home. They barely missed the NCAA tournament last year, and are picked 11th out of 16 in the super-competitive Big East. They are in the first year of new coach Kevin Willard, but they start 3 seniors and 2 juniors. If we win we won't play again till Sunday night, but if we lose, we play again Saturday. It would be nice to have that day of rest before facing either Iowa or Xavier.

Iowa is also in the first year of new coach Fran McCaffery. He is in the process of trying to implement a more up-tempo style of play similiar to what we run. Cully Payne, former Alabama signee, is their starting poing guard. Payne signed under Gottfried but asked for his release when Gottfried was let go. Iowa is 1-1, bouncing back from a loss to the South Dakota State Jackrabbits to beat La-Monroe 68-40. Iowa returns most of its team from last year's disappointing 10-22 season.

Xavier, our other possible second round opponent, is 2-0 but has not been overly impressive so far. They needed overtime to beat IPFW (Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne) and beat Western Michigan 68-65. They lost their final exhibition game to Bellarmine. They were 26-9 last year, and one of only two teams in the sweet 16 the last 3 straight years. They have been to the NCAA tournament 5 years in a row. They return 11 players from last year's team, including 3 starters. Despite their slow start, I suspect they would be a difficult matchup for us.

The other side of the bracket features Clemson, Long Beach State, Old Dominion, and Saint Peters. Clemson is also in the first year with a new head coach. Last year they lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament. They return 12 players from that team. The Tigers are 2-0 with wins over Western Carolina and Wofford.

The Saint Peter's Peacocks are 0-1, losing 55-30 to Robert Morris. I think it's safe to say they suck.

The Long Beach State 49ers are 1-1, losing their homecoming and season opener to San Diego State, but bouncing back to beat San Francisco State. They made it to the Big West Championship game last year, return 4 starters, and are picked 2nd in their conference this year. Snoop Dogg's hometown team will play Clemson in the first round, an interesting rematch of a 10 point Clemson win on a neutral court last season.

Old Dominion is 1-1, losing to Georgetown by only 3 and beating High Point convincingly. Coach Blaine Taylor is in his 10th year at ODU where he has won fairly consistently. They return 4 starters from last year's CAA Championship team that was eleminated in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament. While not a big name school, the Monarchs are definitely a team to watch in this tournament. They are a very good team, and they essentially get a first round bye against St. Peters.

I predict we make it to the championship game and lose a close one to Old Dominion. Our first game is Friday afternoon at 7pm Atlantic time (5pm Central) against Seton Hall. No television coverage as far as I know. Bobbyjack and I will be there, and will try to post updates depending on a number of factors including, but not limited to: available time, sobriety, and internet access.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

I apologize for my lack of activity, but I am currently working offsite, and of all things, the Alabama Basketball Blog is blocked there. Total heresy, but I digress....

From the Huntsville Times....

Trevor Lacey, the state's reigning Mr. Basketball, started his senior season in style by torching the Parker Thundering Herd for 50 points in Butler's 77-53 victory in the Rocket City/Magic City Classic at Johnson High School here in Huntsville. Coach Anothony Grant was in attendance as Lacey was 15-of-26 from the field, including 8-of-14 from 3-pt range. He sank 12-of-14 from the free throw line, had 7 rebounds, 3 steals, and a blocked shot.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

A&M is a fairly small team that we should dominate inside, but showed in exhibition they can hit the outside shot. If you judge them by last year, they stunk... and they are expected to stink again as they were picked last in the ultra tough MEAC conference.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

We are expected to sign 4 players this week. Also, we will be playing in the 2011 Puerto Rico tip-off tournament Nov.17,18, and 20 of 2011 along with Purdue, Temple, Maryland, Colorado, Iona, and Wichita State. Puerto Rico tipoff.

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

It took 10 minutes of free basketball before we were finally able to claim victory over the mighty chargers. Give credit to UAH who had a great plan and played very hard, but we have a long way to go.

The charger point guard, who played the entire 50 minutes, was surprisingly quick and did a pretty good job of handling the basketball against our pressure. Early in the game they beat our traps and knocked down some open 3's. We switched to a man to man defense, but they still got way too many open looks from the perimeter. We were not physical enough in fighting through their screens (many of which were illegal, but not called). When we stretched our defense out to defend the perimeter, they cleared the lane and got several easy baskets on backdoor cuts. UAH lead by as many as 8 points in the first half.

I know some people get irritated at Senario Hillman at times, but he can carry the team when necessary. At one point we had a lineup where Hillman was the only legitimate scoring threat on the floor. I have no problem with his "ball hogging" in that situation.

JaMychal Green finished with 16 points, but he was too soft in the paint for much of the game. He was back to shooting his turnaround fade-away hook from the block that never seems to work.

Hankerson played a little better than he did against Talladega, in that he at least managed to not turn the ball over, but he's still not a viable option at this point. Watching him warm up, he made about 8 3's in a row, but when he gets in the game he frankly looks uptight and nervous as hell.

Eblen ran the point for much of the game and took good care of the basketball, but he took 2 shots with predictable results. Durant gave us some quality minutes and Engstrom looked a little more comfortable down low than he did the other night in limited action.

Our biggest problem right now is that we can't shoot. Hillman is the only one who I have any confidence in making a jump shot from the perimeter right now, although Tony Mitchell made a three. Releford can shoot but he needs to be wide open to get his shot off. Getting Charves Davis back, and hopefully Andrew Steele, will be a big help.

Free throw shooting is disgusting. From Releford to Green and everybody in between, we suck. 50%!?! I've seen junior high teams shoot better than 50% from the line.

Late game decision making was atrocious. I became completely unglued, both at the end of regulation and even moreso at the end of the first overtime, because we had the ball with no shot clock, with timeouts remaining, and did not use one to set anything up. At the end of regulation the set broke down and we forced a bad shot, Green got the rebound but couldn't score, in large part because he was being anally raped at the time. Unfortunatley, Mike Stuart, the official, didn't notice. At the end of the first overtime we again had the ball with less than 35 seconds left, didn't call timeout, ended up turning the ball over and giving UAH the last shot. There is absolutely no excuse for not getting the last shot in that situation. I thought Gottfried was back on the sideline for a moment. After taking some time to cool off, I am going to give Coach Grant the benefit of the doubt there and assume he just wanted to see how his team would handle that situation if they didn't have a timeout, since it was only an exhibition game. Obviously the answer was not very good, so that is another thing we need to work on.

If we continue to play like this, especially in the first half, we may struggle with FAMU and Troy, not to mention the teams in the Paradise Jam. On the other hand, it could be worse. auburn lost to Columbus College. If you are looking for some positives from this game: Releford had another good night and showed some leadership late in the close game. We also actually won a close, hotly contested game (yes, against a Div.II school), but it seemed we lost all of those last year.

Not basketball related, but our pregame intro music sucks. We need to bring back Metallica. Also, the crowd was pathetic. Maybe 3,000 or so, 40% of which were UAH fans.

Up next, the games start counting when the Florida A&M Rattlers come calling for an approximately 7:30pm tip off at Coleman Coliseum Friday night. Get there early and watch the women's team play at 5, the men's game will start 30 minutes after the conclusion of the women's game.

Monday, November 08, 2010

Alabama plays the final exhibition game of the season tonight at Coleman Coliseum against the UAH (University of Alabama at Huntsville) Chargers. UAH is the preseason favorites to win the Gulf South Conference in Division II. They played Vandy relatively close in Nashville before losing 69-53. I was just looking at the roster on their website, and they have 4 seniors, but they don't have anybody over 6'8" and nearly the entire team is white. We should stomp these guys.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Alabama defeated Talladega College last night by a score of 96-60. Unfortunately, my internet feed of the game went out shortly after the start of the second half. If anyone saw the whole game or was actually there in person, please chime in with your thoughts and observations.

The first half wasn't particularly pretty, but that's to be expected after only a couple weeks of practice. Charvez Davis and Andrew Steele did not dress out for the game. Charvez is recovering from hernia surgery and Andrew was out due to "discomfort in his knee". Grant says his return is "unclear" (uh oh).

My own observations: The team started slowly, particularly on the defensive end. Talladega actually led early by six points due to rather poor perimeter defense by Alabama. The team also had double figure turnovers by halftime, finishing with 19 for the game. 3-point shooting was an issue as the team only made 2-11 shots. The team did force 24 turnovers and played much better in the second half according to comments made by Anthony Grant (again, if you saw the second half, please post your own observations). For the game Alabama shot 50% from the field, 18% from the 3-pt line and only 66% from the free throw line.

Trevor Releford led the team with 17 points and 7 assists with only one turnover. It's only one game against inferior competition, but I was impressed by what I saw from Releford. He looks like he will be a fun player to watch in the coming years. He has a terrific first step and used it several times to blow past his defender and get to the basket. I didn't see him attempt any jumpers (the box score lists only one 3-pt attempt), but he has the ability to finish off the dribble and he was a perfect 7-7 from the free throw line. Four other Tide players posted double figures in scoring - JaMychal scored 16 points, Senario scored 15 (he hit the only two 3-pointers of the evening), Tony Mitchell scored 12 (and led the team in rebounds with 8) and Kendall Durant finished with 10 points.

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

For obvious reasons I did not ask Mikhail's father any specific questions, but this story is consistent with everything he told me. My only hope and prayer for Mikhail are that he find his own proper path. He is a fine young man from a good, loving family who represents The University of Alabama well. Here's wishing him a long, happy and productive life.